Top-seeded Clemson will play No. 4 Oklahoma at the Orange Bowl and No. 2 Alabama gets No. 3 Michigan State at the Cotton Bowl in the New Year’s Eve semifinals of the College Football Playoff. Alabama is the only team that also played in the first four-team playoff last season, but lost 42-35 to eventual national champion Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl.
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Clemson has won a school-record 16 consecutive games dating to last season, including a 40-6 demolition of Oklahoma in last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl, so the Sooners will be intent on gaining a measure of revenge in Miami.
Three of those wins – over Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State – came in the month of November and allowed Oklahoma to quickly climb the College Football Playoff rankings and claim the Big 12 championship.
The winners of those two games will then advance to the National Championship game in Glendale, AZ on January 11. Long also touted a season-opening victory over Wisconsin, which didn’t finish in the top 25 but was 9-3.
“I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Michigan State go to No. 2”, ESPN analyst Joey Galloway said after Michigan State defeated Iowa in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday. The Crimson Tide and the Spartans began the season in the top five.
Against Michigan State, it will be strength against strength.
Coach Kirk Ferentz, hired by the Hawkeyes starting with the 1999 season, has made 13 bowl games in the past 15 seasons, but he had never made the Rose Bowl.
B1G block. The Big Ten has potentially blocked the Big 12’s attempt to deregulate the rules regarding conference championship games.
Or maybe they’re just trying to induce the public into betting for the Spartans and putting as much action on the game as possible. Alabama and Michigan State met in the Citrus Bowl following the 2010 season, with the Crimson Tide rolling to a 49-7 win.
“That’s certainly the case in this game, just like it was in this last game against Jim McElwain and Florida and with Will at Auburn, and it will be when we play Kirby someday”. And although Michigan State had a string of national titles in the 1950s and ’60s and has experienced a resurgence under ninth-year coach Mark Dantonio, it has tended to be overlooked in favour of Big Ten rivals such as Michigan and Ohio State.
Had the BCS still been in place, this year would be a mess, with Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma all vying for one spot against Clemson, and Alabama likely getting it. Thankfully, the playoff is again proving to be a huge upgrade.
The other semifinal pits the nation’s top-ranked team (Clemson) against its hottest (Oklahoma) in the Orange Bowl. “The committee viewed Clemson and Alabama as clear-cut”. And remember, the committee is judging the teams’ full body of work. Not sure that’s how most people want to spend their last night of 2015. I mean we had a pick six and a lot of momentum.
The Associated Press’ poll has been released before the College Football Playoff selection committee reveals the field for the national semifinals.
The Spartans rugged defensive line with Shilique Calhoun and Malik McDowell stuffed Ohio State’s and Iowa’s running game. Marshall Koehn’s 24 yard field goal brought the score to 3-3. The Spartans’ four-game bowl winning streak matches the longest in Big Ten history, and is the longest active streak in the FBS.
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Michigan State has the longest odds of making the College Football Playoff championship game as well as winning it, according to the “FiveThrtyEight” analysts website.
